Facebook is an ageing social media platform now and most people believe it to be dying due to competition from TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Meta’s latest financial results prove this is not the case at all though. Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) were 2.04 billion on average in March, a 4% increase from the year before. Monthly active users were at 2.99 billion as of March 31, 2023, an increase of 2% year-over-year.
One of the things that shareholders like to see is growing revenue figures. Meta has not disappointed. In Q1 2023, it reported an increase in ad impressions by 26% but saw the average price per ad fall by 17%. It generated revenue of $28.65 billion, which represents an increase of 3% year-over-year. Following interest rate hikes by central banks around the world, investors will be happy to see that Facebook is continuing to keep its head above water, despite the difficult economic circumstances.
According to the company, its total headcount now stands at 77,114 as of March 31, 2023. It said this is a 1% decrease year-over-year. This figure no longer includes all those employees that were laid off in the November 2022 round of cuts. The headcount figure does, however, still include those affected by the layoffs that occurred in 2023. In mid-March, Meta announced another 10,000 job losses so we can effectively say that the headcount will fall to around 67,114.
At the market close, Meta’s stock was trading for $209.40 but since the company released its latest earnings, the stock has spiked to $233.79. Investors who took a gamble on Meta, when it fell below $90 per share in November, will have seen their investment rise by more than 160% - not too shabby for a maturing tech company like Meta.